When you become more knowledgeable, you can become less profitable.

You can spend so much time getting more knowledgable, technically, but it can take you away from your business which is what actually brings in the profits.

You might be saying to yourself, “This guy is always talking about learning more. Where is he going now? This doesn’t make sense.”

Yes, at first, this doesn’t mix with my message of learning. So let me explain — when we concentrate on one particular item, dig deep, get better at it, then get really great at it, we can forget to look at all of the things going on around us.

Companies that only make one thing can get really good at making that one thing, sales are up, profits improve as they refine their processes.

And when they are so deep into that single product, they forget that competitors come in with new processes to make that same product. They don’t see the market changing to a new type of technology, or that technology is changing and what they have spent years at perfecting is now obsolete.

Competitors, the market, and technology, will, in the long run, cut your profits for you.

When financial advisors talk about your retirement savings and investments, they talk about diversification. Invest in several different industries so that if one is down, most likely another is up.

When you make a product that has a long life you want to be able to offer other products that can be purchased regularly to not only keep your customer engaged but also to bring in regular income.

The same is true for most businesses that I know and have worked with. If you have a single, signature product, you are at a higher danger of losing sales and profits.

Take for example an electrician or a lawyer. When they get their continuing education, they will be better electricians and lawyers. They will learn the new rules and regulations and then they start digging into that material and get better at delivering electricity or the new clause in a contract.

They have spent so much time getting more knowledgable, technically, but it has taken them away from their business which is what actually brings in the profits.

So there is a balance that needs to be established. If you are growing your business, are you going to spend time getting more knowledgeable of the details of the tasks, or, are you going to spend time to actually grow the business?

When you look at your goals that you have established at the beginning of the year, did you accomplish them by working on things that don’t contribute the achieving the goal? Did they slip by because you were fighting fires instead of concentrating on the business? Did they slip by because you were doing something that you could have delegated to someone else? Did they slip by because you went out on a troubleshooting call that should have been done properly by the technician?

Diversify your learning, diversify your offering, delegate tasks, concentrate on growing the business.

As the business owner, your first responsibility should be to growing the business. If you don’t work to grow the business, your competitors will gladly take your profits, and your employees, and your business.